Burning question of the day: How many towels should you send a child to college with?

[Virginia Dawn]

Or: With how many towels should you send your child to college?:001_smile:

Ds will most likely bring his laundry home on weekends, so how many washcloths and bath towels for a week? One a day?

Or should I make him use his bath towels more than once? In addition to taking a daily shower, he washes his face before bed, but 14 wash cloths sounds like too many to me. (I'm seeing $$$)

[CynthiaOK]

Ha! Looks like we're doing the same kind of packing. We just went to Target to get the x-long sheets, etc. I decided to send 2 bath towels and about 10 wash cloths. Target had a bundle of wash cloths for something like $3 - nice, cheap, he can lose them and it won't be a big problem. We got 2 sheet sets so he won't have an excuse not to change them :glare:

He can do some of his laundry there. He hopes to be home every other weekend, but with gas prices, that may not happen. I guess we can tweak his dorm contents throughout the semester and perhaps come up with a good system.

[ereks mom]

Everybody is "issued" one towel to be used for several days. If you're drying your clean body with a clean towel, is that towel really dirty after one use? (I seem to remember a detergent commercial that said something to this effect.) Washcloths are kept in a basket in the bathroom, to be replaced every few days as needed. Same with hand towels.

So, I will likely send ER to college with 3 or 4 each of towels, washcloths, and hand towels. He'll probably be home every couple of weeks, so that should be plenty. If not, he can use the laundromat.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

I would do enough wash cloths for at least 2 a day. It may be that the face cloth could be used a couple of nights without being yucky. I don't reuse mine though. I would not like to use the one that washed my bum that morning on my face that night! And for towels, I would say start with enough so there are a maybe 4 or 5 to be used over the course of a week. The thing is, in a dorm room, you don't really have good ventilation. Things may not dry nicely and smell all that great. Multiple usage could prove stinky! You might have to play it by ear to see what the conditions are like.

[*anj*]

When I went to college back in the Olde Days of Yore, I took 3 bath towels, 3 hand towels, and 10 wash cloths. We had always taken fresh ones every day at home, but my mom told me to use the towels twice (I was shocked!)
Oh, and I don't reuse washcloths that have been used on my bum, but will reuse facecloths. That's roughly what we worked out with the 10 washcloths.

Can you believe that we are still using most of those towels? We bought good quality, and 24 years later they're still in use. They are definitely not the nice ones that we use for guests, but they are usable. Cool, huh?:001_smile:

[hypermusicmom]

Yeah, we did the Target college dorm in a bag thing. Did any of you get a mailer from a company stating their sheets are the ONLY ones to fit the dorm beds? I'm crossing my fingers on the XL twin sheet sets from Target. 2 towels, a dozen washcloths., a caddy to keep hygiene items so they don't get them mixed up. an extra set of sheets. They can do laundry there. I went over this with my DS already. We are counting down... 30 days.

[ereks mom]

the Target college dorm in a bag thing

I was thinking about this as well. We have NO money right now, though. I really hope Target doesn't sell out of the dorm-in-a-bag things before we can manage to buy some.

[CynthiaOK]

Ya' know, we found that buying things separately was just as cheap. They had a sale on their x-long sheet sets as well as towels/wash cloths and there was a lot more selection with colors and styles. Don't despair ;-).

[Plaid Dad]

Two should be plenty, particularly if he's coming home every weekend. If you are going to send a lot of washcloths, you might want to consider some kind of drying rack for his room so they don't go into the laundry bag wet. Don't ask me how I know that's important. :o

[summer]

1-2 towels. He should hang them dry. I would send 2 for just in case. Thing is, he is completely clean when he uses them, fresh out of the shower. I would send a hand towel maybe for after shaving and brushing is teeth and all. But he has to cart all this home every week. Best to have the lessor amount.

[WTMindy]

I'd say 3 towels.

[Virginia Dawn]

Thanks for the replies! You saved me a lot of unproductive thinking. :-) I think we'll try 3-4 bath, 3 hand, and 10 washcloth, to start. Some way to hang the towels to dry would be a good idea too, but we'll wait till we see the dorm room.

[Chris in VA]

He will probably have a towel bar in his bedroom, or can hang a towel off his bunk.
BTW, I took 5 towels. Get the thinner ones, because they dry faster (both air dry and dryer-dry).

[RebeccaC]

I say three bath towels, 10 to 14 washcloths, and 3 or 4 hand/face towels. My mil had this rule; one in use, one clean in reserve, and one dirty, so 3. She liked the idea of 3 so if one got lost or stolen or left at the laundromat it was not a need to go buy one now. It also meant that if a young man got really muddy playing ball or..... and needed something to clean his shoes, sports equipment, or something he had two in reserve for hygiene use.

[Diane]

I would definitely send him with at least 4 towels. There may be a time when he can't come home.

On another note, what a blessing that he CAN come home every week. I'm sure that makes it easier on you. I went away to college and my mom cried every day. She was happy I was only gone for a year and a half. :)

[Virginia Dawn]

[QUOTE=Diane;396706]
On another note, what a blessing that he CAN come home every week. I'm sure that makes it easier on you. QUOTE]


I am happy about that. His school will be in the same city dh works in. :D

[Reesegirl]

I have had my 2 oldest dd's live in the dorm at least 2 years...they both had 3 bath towels 3-4 hand towels and probably 12 of those thin white wash cloths. With their face and complexion, they didn't want to reuse a wash cloth. One thing to think about in preparing what they will need is the amount of space that they will have in their room. My dd's went to the same college and both lived in a very spacious new dorm with lots of room in their freshman year. Their sophomore years found themselves in the older typical dorm with pull out beds from the wall, a built in desk and about 3 small drawers in their closets. They made use of cinder blocks to put their beds up higher so that they could store lots of stuff under their beds. Storage is a big issure... and several towels take up a lot of room!